Formation, first two albums and break up (1993–1998)
The band was formed in 1993 by former Happy Mondays members Shaun Ryder and Bez. It was Ryder's first musical project after the disintegration of Happy Mondays due both to his multiple drug addictions and to disagreements about revenues with other band members. The formation of the new band was intended to draw a line between his past life and his new one. Ryder and Bez recruited rappers Paul "Kermit" Leveridge and Carl "Psycho" McCarthy, drummer Ged Lynch, and guitarist Wags and Oli "Dirtycash" Dillon on ocarina. Recording of new material started that year, although the group was not under contract. In 1995, Black Grape was signed by Radioactive Records and released its debut albumIt's Great When You're Straight...Yeah. The album debuted at number one in the UK Albums Chart, and spawned three top 20singles. The album was certified platinum in the UK in April 1996. The third single, "Kelly's Heroes" – a song lampooning society's obsession with celebrities and idols that had much to do with Ryder's own previous hero worship of people he now saw as wastrels – had its opening lyric changed before recording from "Don't talk to me about heroes – Most of these guys snort cocaine," to "Don't talk to me about heroes – most of these men sing like serfs". Another song on the album, "Temazi Party", mocked the then-current craze for abusing temazepamsleeping pills, but was deliberately misspelt on the album sleeve as 'Tramazi' instead of 'Temazi' to forestall any legal injunction against the album's release. The subsequent album Stupid Stupid Stupid was less commercially successful, but was certified gold in the UK in January 1998. The group split in 1998 after Ryder fired the rest of the band while touring, starting with Kermit and ending with Bez. Lynch went on to play drums and percussion on many other musical works, becoming a noted session musician.
Reunion (2010–present)
On 1 April 2010, Ryder briefly reformed Black Grape with producer Danny Saber and Kermit for a concert as part of the 'Get Loaded in the Dark' gig series at The Coronet in London. In 2015, Black Grape signed to Creation Management run by Alan McGee and Simon Fletcher and announced a reunion tour to coincide with 20 years of the It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah album. Black Grape recorded and released a song "We are England" in support of the England national football team for the UEFA Euro 2016 football competition, in collaboration with DJ Paul Oakenfold and singer Goldie, under the name 4 Lions. It was released by the management label Fletcher McGee Ltd under license to BMG Rights Management. On 4 May 2017, it was announced that the group's next album, Pop Voodoo would be released on 7 July. On the same day, "Everything You Know Is Wrong" was released. The album was eventually released on 4 August. Louder Than War listed the album as one of its top 100 albums of 2017, placing it high at #23.
